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Monday, 8 January 2018

Raising Godly Offspring : Manoah's Story

I thank God for another opportunity to drop a
small piece for you on this blog, and I pray that what you read here blesses
you and makes a great impact in your life to the glory of God.

In my last post I started to write about the
product of our marriages and one of such important product is the offspring
that we have been able to produce for God from our marriage union. God said in
Malachi 2:15 that He made the man and his wife one in flesh and spirit because
he was seeking godly offspring from their union, and so if we will be diligent
to fulfill this one of our marital assignments to God then we need to take the
parenting assignment on our marriages a little more seriously.

We looked at the father in Job in the last post I shared, and learned a few lessons that should help us understand the scope of our
assignment as parents, and in today’s post, we will learn a little more from
another parent figure in the Bible.

Judges 13, tells us the story of the birth of
Samson and there are so many lessons to learn from this story and I pray the
Holy Spirit will open the mind of God to us and reveal to us the deep truth and
lessons of this passage.

Judges
13:2-5

A
certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife
who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her
and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and
have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and
that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth
to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a
Nazarite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of
Israel from the hands of the Philistine.”

This might appear as just an ordinary story
but the first extraordinary lesson in the story is the role Samson’s mother
played in the realization of her son’s destiny. The Bible said the angel of the
Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife who was sterile and childless and gave her the
good news of her childbirth, but the angel didn’t stop at that. If that was all
there was to it, it would have been easy. But she had a role to play in the
whole matter. She was to consecrate her own life for the sake of the child in
her womb. She was to abstain from things that could alter or affect the destiny
of her unborn child.

In the same manner as parents we owe God the
duty to consecrate our lives for the sake of our children. Do you desire a child
set apart for God, then begin by consecrating your own life for the sake of
your child/children. Set apart your life that your children might have an ideal
role model in you. Set apart your life that you might have the moral
justification to right the wrongs in the lives of your children. You will agree
with me that it’s easier to lead your children by example than to direct them
in one path and then you follow another.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God;
he is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations
of those who love Him and keep His commands.

Number 14:18

The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love
and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished;
He punishes the children for the sin of the father to the third and fourth
generation.

In the passages above we find the relationship
between the consecration of the parents and the destinies of their children.
Good or bad what you do affects your children’s lives either negatively or
positively depending on the course of your own action.

Manoah’s wife had to consecrate herself because of the destiny and assignment of her son. She had to stay away from
those things that could contaminate the destiny of the child she was to carry.
It’s not just Manoah’s wife that has to do this for her child, we all have to
because under our care are the generals of the Lord. The army of the living
God assigned to bring down the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. By consecrating our lives, I do not mean abstaining from food and drinks, but abstaining from actions and deeds that will not glorify God in your life or that of your children. God says He is seeking godly offspring from our marriage union, and one of the
ways we can make this happen is by living exemplary lives that will bestow on
our children the love of God to a thousand generations after us. As long as the
Lord still seeks godly offspring from our marriage union, then our children are
Nazarites to the Lord, just like Samson was a Nazarite to God. Our children are
the army the Lord seeks to bring His Kingdom down to earth as it is in heaven,
just as Samson was destined to bring about the deliverance of Israel from the
hands of the Philistines.

And just before I round up this post, I would
want us to consider the role played by Manoah who was Samson’s father in the
whole consecration issue.

Judges 13:8

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord; “O Lord, I beg
you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up
the boy who is to be born.”

So we see that the consecration was not just about
Samson’s mother, but his father had to pray for the Lord to teach them how to
bring up the special son to be born. Are fathers still praying that the Lord would teach them how to raise the army of the Lord or they are adopting their
inadequate understanding on this matter? Manoah prayed and so should all
fathers. Manoah sought clarity from the Lord and so should all fathers. So to be
able to please God in this assignment, you need the help of God to lead you and
see you through to success. If you have not been praying now is the time to
start.

So
we have learned that in order to succeed in producing for God the godly
offspring that He seeks from our union we need to consecrate ourselves for the
sake of the destiny of our children and we need to pray that the Lord teaches
us how to train our children such that their lives pleases the Lord and they
fulfill their destinies. In doing this we will succeed well. And so till I come
your way again. I pray that you remain blessed. To learn more on raising godly offspring for the Lord, you can get my book "Because the Lord Seeks Godly Offspring." It available on My Book Store through this link https://thewordthatsuits.com/